Amarillo takes No. 14 on list of top cities to start a business

Business website WalletHub has ranked Amarillo the 14th best city in the country to start a business and the second-best in Texas.

The site said Amarillo scored well in areas of small business lending, affordable residential real estate, long average workday and low cost of living.

WalletHub said it used 14 metrics to gauge the relative entrepreneurial opportunities that exist in the 150 largest U.S. cities, based on population.

In addition to the categories in which Amarillo excelled, criteria included corporate taxes, employee availability, workforce education and number of businesses per capita.

P.J. Pronger, director of West Texas A&M University’s Small Business Development Center, said Amarillo’s cost of living could potentially attract talent to Amarillo, but programs such as those with Amarillo Economic Development Corp. make a bigger impact.

“For a community our size, we probably have more resources than most cities in the country,” he said.

Bob Garrett, Coldwell Banker Commercial broker/owner, said local commercial real estate growth has rebounded since the Great Recession but has focused on three areas — northwest Amarillo, southwest Amarillo and between Georgia Street and Western Street near Interstate 40.

“We’re seeing lots of people coming into the market across the state for expansion, and (Amarillo is) no different,” Garrett said. “There is a lot of activity right now, while two or three years ago it was a little bit slower.”